Social Media Marketing Blog

How Social Sponsorship creates value for brands, media & audiences.

Sponsorship has been an effective resource for brands to associate to a sport team, TV show or any other major event. But with the raise of social media, this bilateral relationship has evolved and a new level of sponsorship emerged from this: Social Sponsorship

When we talk about social sponsorship, it is hard not to associate the concept to the new star in the marketing game: “The Audience”.

After years and years of sponsored events, sponsored teams and shows, audiences are craving for these brands associating with their favorite properties to make their experience more enjoyable. And Social Sponsorship offers you a great opportunity.

Sponsorships could be so much more than eyeballs

Brands traditionally associated to an event or organization by simply putting their logo on a shirt, banner or ad. Increasingly brands want to be associated with positive, repeatable and shareable experiences and social sponsorships provide just that. These kind of experiences provide audiences an environment to comment, discuss and share their excitement about a specific topic or event.

During Super Bowl XLIX, one of the most talked-about events in social media, Pepsi decided to extend the reach of this action by partnering with Televisa and Fox Sports Mexico sponsoring their On-Air Twitter poll integration. This way they were not only re-inforcement their association to the event, but also providing the audience the environment to support their favorite team.

More inventory, More Revenue, More Value

For media outlets or event organizers, integrating Social Experiences into your sponsorship offerings enables you to grow your inventory and generate a new revenue stream. Even better, there are tons of possible experiences to be created, so the brand integration can be seamless and relevant.

Social experiences and sponsorship can potentially be generated across all consumer touchpoints of an event or other property: TV, In-venue, Web, DOOH screens, etc. And each of these touchpoints can enrich the audience’s experience.

For Marketers, social sponsorship provides an opportunity to be at the core of the conversations already happening without them, being associated exclusively with the best parts of the experience.

Lollapalooza is one of the most popular music festivals around the world. In its edition in Argentina, Chevrolet one of the main sponsors wanted to associate themselves to “innovation”. They used Flowics to showcase fans` tweets and pictures in a large screen on the side of the main stage and thousands participated, becoming more involved than ever with the show. The organizer was able to monetize the experience and the sponsor associated the brand to positive conversations in an innovative way.

Brands can associate themselves to otherwise impossible properties

Argentina’s National Football (soccer) team is sponsored by Adidas. However, with the biggest regional tournament in four years taking place (Copa America 2015) Nike wanted to have a part in it. When Ole, one of LATAM most popular sport portals, offered Nike the possibility of sponsoring conversations, discussions and opinions around Argentine Football team during Copa America 2015 they did not let that opportunity slip away.

Brands can be associated in the most positive way

Of course the brands always want to be associated to positive feelings, conversations and comments. Social sponsorships allow for this to happen by enabling content curation before being published. Furthermore, it enables property owners to surface exclusively the most relevant and valuable content in an effortless way.

In the end, the audience will have received a great experience, the property owner will have monetized new inventory, and the sponsor will have associated itself to a great experience and get a lot more out of the investment than eyeballs.